Seven years is exactly what CC Sabathia got prior to the 2009
season, when he signed a $161 million contract with the Yankees.
Of course, Sabathia was only 28 in the first season of his deal,
four years younger than Lee will be next year in the first year
of his new deal.

Seven year deals are rare in baseball. In our research, we found
seven pitchers in the history of baseball that had signed a
contract of at least seven years. And these deals are rare for
good reason: pitchers break down.

Let's take a look at those seven pitchers and how they performed
over the life of the contract...

Of the seven pitchers that have signed seven-year deals, Barry
Zito and CC Sabathia are the only two pitchers still under their
contract. Two of the pitchers, Dave Stieb and Wayne Garland, were
out of baseball before their contracts expired. And Mike Hampton
missed two seasons in the middle of his contract.

If we ignore Sabathia, who has only played two of the seven years
on his contract, we see that long-term deals are just not a good
idea for starting pitchers. All of the remaining pitchers
averaged less than 10 wins per season and only two pitchers had
an ERA south of 4.00.

And as bad as these pitchers were, consider that only Kevin Brown
was older than Lee is now, when he signed his long-term deal.

There is no doubt that Lee is one of the best starting pitchers
in baseball, and anybody that signs him will be better in the
short-run for having done so. But for a chance to be better for
the next few years, at some point, Lee's next team will have to
pay the piper.